The Irish Grain Assurance Scheme (IGAS) has been in operation since 2002. It describes itself as the most comprehensive scheme of its type in Europe, yet tillage farmers feel it is having no impact on improving the market or price prospects for their grain.

Quite simply, farmers buying rations have no awareness of where the grain in their feed comes from. Neither do they know how much grain is in their ration.

Who owns IGAS?

The grain assurance scheme involves the main stakeholders in the sector. Farmers are represented by the IFA, grain merchants and millers by the Irish Grain and Feed Association (IGFA). The Department of Agriculture and Teagasc are also involved. Together they own IGAS through the Cereal Association of Ireland, the umbrella group of which they are all members. Cropsure is the company that runs IGAS.

Who are members?

IGAS says 90% of the grain grown and then traded in Ireland is assured by them, making it the most comprehensive scheme of its kind in Europe. There are about 5,000 growers and currently 57 grain merchants in the scheme.

The cost of membership is €65 plus VAT for growers with less than 100ha and €110 for those with over 100ha. For growers involved in both production and storage, the fee is €225. Only about 300 IGAS members are in this category.

There are also a number of merchants (57 currently listed on the IGAS website, to be exact), who are members. These are categorised as storage only. These are the people who buy grain from farmers. Most of them also compound ration, selling back to farmers.

Inspections

Members are inspected regularly, and are expected to maintain comprehensive records relating to the source of their seed (including batch number of purchased seed), a full record of field operations – sowing, fertiliser and pesticide application, and harvesting.

Chemical stores must be to specification, secure, and with a full inventory constantly maintained. All of these are now also requirements for grain growers under cross-compliance.

IGFA is, as mentioned earlier, co-owner of IGAS. It is not the system, however, that is used to assure grain within the feed trade. Instead, they are party to the Universal Feed Assurance Scheme (UFAS), which accounts for “95% of the commercially produced compound feed in Ireland and the UK”, according to its website. UFAS is accepted across Europe.

On the face of it, the two schemes harmonise well: one brings grain from seed to storage, the other from stored grain to feed. The problem is that imported grain starts on the same step as IGAS-assured grain, provided it passes tests for the presence of mycotoxins. There is no advantage gained for all that Irish farmers do to receive IGAS approval.

Bord Bia has now introduced a new scheme: the Feed Quality Assurance Scheme. The hope is that for farmers, the IGAS will fulfil the requirements of this scheme. While talks are trying to achieve this, there is an issue around the insistence that the Bord Bia scheme be of a certain EU standard that may require annual inspections for every participant. UFAS has been recognised as an equivalent standard.

There is a pressing need for Irish grain to be prioritised in the other quality assurance schemes, on the basis of provenance. This is a buzzword now in food production. It basically means the place of origin. It stands to reason that meat and milk being promoted through Bord Bia’s Origin Green campaign would benefit from having native, locally produced, fully assured feed – not just grain, but also protein feeds.

The reality is that Ireland does not produce enough grain to fulfil all our animal feed requirements, but if there is no linkage built-in, we may be producing very little domestic feed grain at all, very soon. Grain production may contract to premium products like porridge oats and malting barley.

If no bonus is built up for IGAS grain, the scheme will not be supported forever. But for that to happen, dairy, beef, sheep, pig and poultry farmers will have to start asking questions about where their grain is coming from, and insisting that Irish grain is utilised.

That currently seems a forlorn hope, although the quality of the samples taken from two loads of imported grain recently should cause questions to be asked.